This invention relates to a soil sample taker which is used to penetrate the ground a selected distance and to retrieve a soil sample and to separate the soil sample in distinctive sections and to effectively evacuate any soil sample not separated.
The prior art discloses a soil sample taker which when a selected amount of soil is taken from the ground, the user removes the soil sample taker and manually urges a selected amount of the soil out of the soil sampler and places it in a container or bucket. The user may slide a portion of the soil sample out the end of the soil sample taker and cut it off by hand and place that portion of the soil in one container and then slide another portion out the end of the soil sample taker and cut that off and place it in another container and so on until the selected soil samples are disposed and separated. The nutrients in the soil may vary according to the depths in the ground. For example, an upper layer of soil may contain different nutrients than a middle or lower layer and the middle layer may be different than either the upper or lower layer and so forth. It has become extremely important to separate the layers of the soil in order to get accurate readings of chemicals, nutrients, etc. which may be in the ground for various reasons. For example, it would be important for a new home developer to first know whether or not certain toxic chemicals exist in the ground where the new homes are to be build and to second know at what depths in the ground are the toxic chemicals located. Toxic chemicals located near the surface of the ground may pose more danger to people than toxic chemicals located much deeper in the ground. A conventional soil sample taker does not separate the soil sample into distinctive sections; wherein each section represents soil taken from a different depth in the ground. Further, if the user were not careful in separating the soil sample, some of the soil from one layer or level may contaminate the soil from another layer or level and the user may not get an accurate reading. Further, if care is not used in separating the soil sample into distinct sections, the soil sample may not be useful to the tester who cares about the what may be in the ground at various depths.
One known prior art is a SOIL SAMPLE TAKER AND VEHICLE MOUNTING ARRANGEMENT, U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,339, invented by Harry M. Philipenko, and which includes a sample-taking probe of the type described in the present invention including the support frame, and the mounting means for the sample-collecting receptacle. What it doesn't describe includes the capability of separating the soil into separate compartments in the receptacle and the capability of blowing out any soil sample in the probe not separated and collected.